


A Little Bit of Comfort

by smam



Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-26
Updated: 2013-02-26
Packaged: 2017-12-03 16:40:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/700439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smam/pseuds/smam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anders has a nightmare and Hawke tries her best to comfort him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Bit of Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this. Bioware does.

It was Hawke's turn to be on watch as the others slept. She sat on a rock by their makeshift camp, her ratty blanket curled around her shoulders. It wasn't like she could have slept anyway. Something about the smell of the place made her ill. Her father always used to make fun of how sensitive her nose was. He'd call her his little Bloodhound.

Her lips quirked into a sad smile as she thought of Malcolm Hawke.

 _Would he be proud of me?_ she snorted at the thought. What did she have to show for herself, for her family? Carver was dead and she put the blame on her shoulders. It was just as her mother said, he was her little brother and she should have looked out for him. It should have been her that died, not him. Even though that last bit wasn't what her mother implied, but she felt like that was what should have happened. Carver had so much life ahead of him. Even though he was constantly in her shadow, he was strong. Stronger than her. And as the eldest, she was supposed to protect her family, which she was unable to do.

 _Maker, I miss him._ Shaky hands smoothed the fly-aways from her ponytail back out of her face as the thoughts ran through her troubled mind.

The only problem with being the one on watch was having all this time to think.

The loud groan behind her startled her. She jumped up from her perch, eyes alert and daggers unsheathed. But the source of the noise wasn't darkspawn, no. It was Anders tossing about in his bedroll, his brows furrowed and a fine sheen of sweat plastered to his haunted face.

"Pfft. Figures," Hawke said as she started to move away from him and go back to her duty. But the sound of the groans that came from him and the way his face contorted in phantom pain... It made her nervous.

_Wouldn't hurt to give him a nudge. It's his watch next anyway._

But instead of waking him up, she sat on the bare ground next to him, watching over him silently. Rivulets of sweat poured down his face as his eyes darted beneath closed lids.

A weird feeling built in her chest. It fluttered faintly, almost ticklish. But that could have been the weird soup that Aveline made, she noted. Nobody should have ate that, but they all did.

Part of her wanted to reach out and comfort him as if he was a child, but she didn't want to go past that boundary he put between them. He was adamant about keeping her at arms length and the last thing she wanted was to disrespect the mage, regardless of how she felt toward him. Would he be angry with her for this? She didn't know if she could bear it.

She was on the fence about it until his hands started to clench at the worn gray blanket beneath them.

There was a sigh and then she laid down next to him, still curled up in her own blanket as she ran a hand through his sweat-dampened hair. That seemed to calm him some, but his hands were still clutching onto the blanket beneath him like he would drift away if he let go. She looked at him then, her eyebrows furrowed as she searched his face for some hidden answer. That was when it hit her. She knew what to do. Before she could stop herself, she began to sing the lullaby that her mother would sing to her and the twins when they were little. It always chased away the worst of her fears. Her voice was soft and sweet, barely above a whisper as she closed her eyes and sang to his sleeping form,

_"Maker watching, e'er around thee,_  
All through the night  
Midnight slumber close surround thee,  
All through the night  
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping,  
Hill and dale in slumber sleeping  
I my loved ones' watch am keeping,  
All through the night..." 

When she stopped, she realized that he was as quiet as could be. Thinking that she had actually made whatever nightmares that plagued him go away, Hawke opened her eyes, prepared to go back to her watch and leave the mage alone.

But Anders was staring at her. Sleepily, mind you, but staring nonetheless. Her stomach did flips at the seriousness in his amber gaze.

"What song was that?" he asked, completely casual. Actually, he looked more relaxed than usual.

Hawke stammered, completely taken by surprise, "'All Through the Night' or something... like that. My mother used to sing it to me when I had nightmares. So... I thought..." But she didn't continue.

They both laid in silence for a moment. It made her feel awkward. She wondered if he felt the same.

But Hawke couldn't take it. "I didn't mean to wake you," she said in a panicked tone.

Anders just smiled in amusement. "There are worse things that I could wake up to. And have. But that's beside the point."

Hawke just snickered at that, a relieved smile on her face. Leave it to Anders to make her feel better. But shouldn't she have been making him feel better? Wasn't that the whole reason she sang to him in the first place?

Varric and Aveline continued to sleep despite the loud conversation their teammates were having. It surprised Hawke.

"I was worried," she began. "You kept groaning and at first I thought you were having a dirty dream, you know," she began to ramble. "And I was like 'Good for him' so I was just going to plug my ears and pretend I wasn't there. But then you looked like you were in pain and I got this... I don't know. This horrible feeling, I guess?" Hawke fiddled with the ends of her blanket, tempted to hide beneath it like she was ten all over again. "So that was all I could think of doing. I'm sorry," she blurted out the last part extremely fast.

"Don't apologize," he said somberly, all humor from before was gone. "I wouldn't have minded a naughty dream or two." He smiled wryly for a moment. "But you were right. Unfortunately. I was having a nightmare. It comes with the whole 'slayer of darkspawn' thing. They don't happen all that often on the surface. Now when I'm down here in the blighted Deep Roads..." He sighed. It was like he just remembered where he was all over again.

"I'm sorry I made you come with me," Hawke said. She really did feel bad. What with the mage so adamant about never stepping foot down there again. Yet here he was.

Anders chuckled sleepily. "You apologize too much, Hawke. You didn't force me. You asked. I said yes. There were no knives against necks or the swearing of painful beatings to convince me. It was entirely my choice."

Hawke visibly relaxed at that.

"I feel worse because you have those nightmares. If I had known...," she sighed and rolled onto her back, her eyes scanning the rock above her. Fortunately she wasn't claustrophobic, otherwise the sight before her might have made her panic. "But I feel more comfortable with you around. Safer," she admitted, despite the insecurity that welled up in the pit of her stomach.

Hawke couldn't look at him. Wouldn't, really. Because then she would see how he took what she said. Anders' eyes were so easy to read. She both loved and hated that about him. So that meant if she continued to avoid his eyes then she would be just fine. Then she wouldn't know his reaction to what she said. Her admission was skimming the line that Anders had drawn between the both of them, so she feared what she would see that much more.

"I'm glad," he whispered, his voice coming out softer than usual. "Though I feel like I should be talking about how you make me feel safer. What with the flailing daggers and all. You're actually a lot stronger than you let on," he laughed as he rolled over so he was facing her.

Hawke snickered, "You know... I started training with swords. Just like... Carver." She flinched at the name of her brother, but tried to keep it from being too noticeable. "But then my father suggested daggers to me. They felt more comfortable. Natural..."

The two continued to talk like that about anything and everything that came to mind. She told him of how she had spent her life on the run. How she learned to fight so that she could protect her family, regardless of her gender. Anders asked about her father, too. About how he felt about the mages. And Hawke couldn't help but admit that her father would have loved the healer and his passion toward freeing other mages. She could tell that her answer gave Anders strength.

Both were so caught up in their serious conversation that they didn't notice when their other two companions began to stir.

Suddenly, Varric was standing above them with an eyebrow cocked.

"It seems that our future guard captain over there and I both slept through our watches," he commented with a smile. "Did I miss the pillow fight?"

Hawke blinked at the other rogue. When his words sunk in, she sat up quickly. "Maker! I forgot to sleep!"

She looked over at Anders who was smiling that little smile of his that made her weak in the knees. Like he knew some amazing secret that she couldn't possibly fathom. It nearly made her forget what she was going to say, but she managed to compose herself when Aveline started to pack up her bedroll.

"That was foolish of you, Hawke. We have a lot of walking ahead of us," the warrior scolded gently.

"It's not her fault," Anders piped in as he slid his blanket off to the side and sat up. "I kept going on and on about my days as a Grey Warden and the horrors of the Deep Roads." He put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze as if to say 'I got this'. It made her stomach do a flip. "Sorry, Hawke."

"Either way. It was foolish. We need you both at your best," Aveline said, an unamused look on her porcelain face.

"Ah, leave 'em alone, Aveline. They were bonding." The rogue nearly cooed the word.

Aveline and Varric continued to bicker as the other two started to pack up their things. If the warrior and rogue had stopped chattering long enough to look back at Hawke and Anders, they would have seen the glances the two sent each other when they thought the other wasn't looking. The magnetism that was there in the beginning had only seemed to grow.

Maybe this was the beginning of something beautiful.


End file.
